Publishing in Tsarist Russia : A History of Print Media from Enlightenment to Revolution

According to Benedict Anderson, the rapid expansion of print media during the late-1700s popularised national history and standardised national languages, thus helping create nation-states and national identities at the expense of the old empires. Publishing in Tsarist Russia challenges this theory and, by examining the history of Russian publishing through a transnational lens, reveals how the popular press played an important and complex Imperial role, while providing a “soft infrastructure” which the subjects could access to change Imperial order.

As this volume convincingly argues, this is because the Russian language at this time was a lingua franca; it crossed borders and boundaries, reaching speakers of varying nationalities. Russian publications, then, were able to effectively operate within the structure of Imperialism but as a public space, they went beyond the control of the Tsar and ethnic Russians.

This exciting international team of scholars provide a much-needed, fresh take on the history of Russian publishing and contribute significantly to our understanding of print media, language and empire from the 18th to 20th centuries. Publishing in Tsarist Russia is therefore a vital resource for scholars of Russian history, comparative nationalism, and publishing studies.

"[A] thoughtful, wide-ranging, and original contribution to scholarship on publishing, readerships, and emergent identities in late imperial Russia. Its nine chapters, well framed by the book’s introduction and brief conclusion, display extensive knowledge of their subject-matter and familiarity with scholarship on it." - The Russian Review

“Almost uniquely among the many studies of Russian print culture, the essays in Publishing in Tsarist Russia collectively situate Russian printing exactly where it should be, within a multi-confessional, poly-lingual, and transnational landscape. It is a welcome and valuable contribution.” —Gary Marker, Professor of History, Stony Brook University, USA

“Challenging the widespread view that state policies of education and language helped forge modern national consciousness, this trailblazing volume shows that, in the case of the Russian Empire, no such linear relationship existed. Publishing in Tsarist Russia is thus a major contribution to both Russian history and the wider history of the vital interaction of language, publishing and national consciousness.” —Christopher Read, Professor of Modern European History, University of Warwick, UK